


One Freckled. One Scarred. One Whole

by Afoolforatook



Series: An Anthology of Affection [32]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Freckles, M/M, Poetry, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25700308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afoolforatook/pseuds/Afoolforatook
Summary: Qrow trails along Clover's frecklesClover tends to Qrow's scarsThey both find meaning in the little marks of life on the other's form.---------------------Part 32Saw a post of kissing prompts. Liked a bunch of them. Decided to give myself a daily challenge to get myself actually publishing things while I work on bigger projects.One prompt a day. Under 1500 words (or close to it).
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: An Anthology of Affection [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805008
Comments: 16
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A poem first from Qrow's perspective, then Clover's, then combined.
> 
> Originally inspired by Renabe's Unraveled - https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390375

Prompt 32 - (Changed) - Kissing freckles/scars.

One Freckled. One Scarred. One Whole. 

\---------------------------------------------------------

**Of Freckles**

\---------------------

Eddies of silt flow along your skin 

Your body, a river bed 

That marks the regions of my life

Each syllable on your lips a murmur of spring 

Everflowing 

Ever returning 

Slowly carving its path into stone

Creation sprouts from you with every word 

Pushing through leaf litter

Insisting that life can return

The smattering of pebbles that trace your lines

A trail of mile markers to lead me home

Constellations of pigment color your cheeks

Rivulets racing me to the dips of your being

Freckles that pool along careful maps of muscle and bone

You are a sky full of endless multitudes

The tide in your eyes draws me in day after day

The color flooding to lap at my feet

Urging me to let the sand embrace me 

Pull me out to sea

Your seafoam could never drown me

To trace the flurries that adorn you 

Is a moment of grace

Of devotion and promise

You are as endless to me as those patterns

I am as tangled in you as any line drawn among them

**Of Scars**

\--------------------------

You are resilience given form

Thatched notches of persistence

Each streak proof of your continued being

Each scar an attempt to hold yourself together 

Every faded stitching is a savior 

A wound that healed 

A chance I would have lost you 

Before you ever caught me

Your breath is existence 

The color of all life in your eyes

An ancient ambrosia of warm precious mercy

A red oasis that has invaded my veins

Your life is in every thrum of my pulse

To lay affection at your mantle 

Is an act of open devotion 

Nothing chains me to you

I return every day

For the blessing of your name 

I press thanks to every faded mark

A promise in every glance

You have held yourself together 

Under a lattice stitched from loss 

My every caress is atonement

For each moment you thought of that pain as your penance.

**Of Being**

\-----------------------

We are not altars to be worshipped

We are not patrons proving piety

We are solid ground

We are ebb and flow

We are water and stone

We are green growth

and crimson blood

Life external 

Life internal

We are the vastness of the universe

We are the safety of familiar bodies

We are the bloom of sprinkle intricacies across mortal canvas

We are the healed void of past wounds, growth built from loss

We are not two parallel forces bound together

We are our own fate

Our own decisions

Our own sacrifices

Our own faith

We are not good and bad

Light and dark

Charm and Omen

We are balance

Melded elements

Inseparable from the other 

We each have dotted presence and pitted absence

And every mark is a pulpit 

A miraculous convergence

At which we convey our love


	2. Our Edges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're both broken in their own ways. 
> 
> But they've each handled those fractured edges very differently. 
> 
> But smoothing out all ragged edges can be just as damaging as leaving them raw and sharp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just the unedited, stream of consciousness, earlier poetry attempt for this prompt, that ended up not really fitting the prompt how I wanted. 
> 
> Possible trigger warning for some metaphors around sharp edges and cuts, but nothing graphic. 
> 
> Sharp is from Qrow's perspective, Smooth from Clover's

**Sharp**

\--------------------

I have found forgiveness in your breath

I have revived a hollow chest 

by the kindness of your touch 

Creation sprouts from you with every word 

The tide in your eyes draws me in day after day

Urges me to let the sand embrace me 

pull me out to sea

You are life external

You are finding something worth living for

You are knowing there is more beyond myself 

And for once, trusting that more 

Could bring something else than pain 

I am shattered pieces 

Shards of someone you will never know 

People you will never meet

Who constructed my foundations

Even when I saw my structure as 

Nothing worthy of being built

I am raw edges

I am fractured bits of some creation 

I was sure was never beautiful to begin with

But you held me

While my splintered being cut into you

And _you_ comforted _me_

You refused all apology

As my brokenness tore at you

You _thanked_ me

For letting you stay

Until that embrace 

I had not seen how much I had allowed

My broken pieces to reopen old wounds

I had not known 

How much scar tissue I refused to let build

How much healing I denied myself

But for you

With you

I want to keep trying

**Smooth**

———————————————

You are life internal. 

You are blood ever recreating itself 

You are learning there is more to me

Than what I am for others 

There are things more fragile than glass

There are edges sharper than broken shards

You have spent a lifetime

Retreating from the world

Warning of your danger

Begging they stay back

You are too jagged to be touched

I have rounded mine out

Stuck them back together

Shown the world there is no danger here

Chosen to believe that 

The smoothed pieces are best

Neat

Safe

Polished edges can be handled

Can be propped together

Can jigsaw into a complete shape

But in wearing them down 

I erased pieces of myself

My form may seem whole

My edges might not break skin

But their sum is not what I was 

I have sanded away fragments of 

Who I was afraid to be

Who I was afraid could never be enough

I never let myself mourn him

See him as anything beyond a shame

And then there was you 

And I regret destroying parts of myself

Because I would give every ounce to you

I would trust you with all my unworthiness 

Because if something can be precious to _you_

How can I deny it’s worth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anthology update- soooooooooooooo this break is going way longer than I'd hoped, and not sure when it'll be over yet. Writing brain just hasn't been working these past few weeks. 
> 
> I start classes again the second week of September and will be a bit busier and likely won't try to keep up with daily prompts, hopefully moving more towards weekly to finish my additional prompts. I really wanted to finish the original 50 prompts before I went back to school, and I'm still hoping to meet that goal, but we'll see. 
> 
> I'm also slowly getting to replying to comments but just a blanket FASKDFHASLDKH crying thanks and love to all of you for reading and liking and commenting. And especially to everyone on the FGE server for being so amazing and supportive. It means the world, and even when I'm having a hard time personally/creatively it's unbelievably heartwarming to see people connecting with my work in any way. <3

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit different today, because nothing else was working
> 
> I want to do this prompt again later with a more usual prose story but I still wanted to post something today, so. 
> 
> And with this, Anthology is now at 50K!!! 
> 
> Thank you so much, each and every one of you for reading and commenting and leaving kudos and yelling at me on discord. I would not have been able to keep this up if it wasn't for the unbelievably kind support from all of y'all. 
> 
> I'll ramble more eventually but, for now. Just thank you.  
> \---------  
> There were 50 prompts originally, but I've already thought of a few more. Also had multiple ideas for a few, which is why some might be listed as chapter 1, with a future version of the prompt coming later.
> 
> Might not end up sticking strictly to the daily thing, but I'll do my best. Either way, here's an ongoing series of little moments.
> 
> Original prompt list - https://kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-types-of-kisses-writing-prompts
> 
> Might edit here and there later, but the goal here was to just finish something, even if it's not perfectly polished.


End file.
